fast user Switching

N

Neal Colingham

Registered
I have 3 users on my G4, my son and daughter and myself the problem is that it seems that we can't share our iTunes folder, when you start iTunes and search for the folder you can't select it. is this the way this use setup should work, I don't want to have to replicate the library 3 times. Any suggestions ?
 
why not make a link for all accounts to a folder that is accessible for everyone?
I am just not sure if that would run properly. Fast user switching lets your programms run, even when you switched. When one is "changing" the library, it could get messy for the next user to access it at the same time... But I am not really sure about this. You should give it a try
 
Automatically the iTunes music folder is in the Home directory of each user. When another user logs in, the home folders of all the others are closed for him.
To let everyone access the same iTunes library, you should try to put it in a place everyone can reach, e.g. directly at the root of your disk or in /Documents. I am not sure if this will go smoothly ... don't know how iTunes will react.
 
I have done this previously. It works, not flawlessly... but it does work.

As a previous poster said, if you make one of your accounts the primary account and then the other user accounts, create links to the primary folder. This works fine. The only issue is I do this with iPhoto as well, and I have issues with permissions. If one user imports photos then another user does it in the same day, it won't save the imported files.

iTunes I have not had an issue with.
 
I have all music in the shared folder (root/users/shared). You can in the advanced settings of iTunes choose where imported music will be placed. Just choose that folder for every user.

the downside:
itunes dont update automatically. if your son imports music you will have to choose "add to library" and then pick the iTunesfolder in the shared folder. it will then update your library.
when one user throws a song away it will dissapear for everyone (if he/she answers yes to the throw it in the trashbin-question. if the users dont answer yes to that question the music will pop back into the playlist next time he/she updates the library to see if the other members imported anything.

your information will still be in you home filder (i.e playlists and stuff).

good luck!
 
Couldn't you set iTunes up how you want it for one user, move the entire iTunes folder to /Users/Shared then put aliases of the iTunes folder in each user's ~/Music folder? Seems to me that would get around the not updating thing. Just a thought. I only have one user setup on his system and don't feel like creating a new user just to test this…

Oh, yeah - RE: The thread title. You do know that iTunes can only be running under one user only at a time, right? You can't leave iTunes running in you account then have your son switch to his account and be able to launch iTunes. This wasn't the case in earlier Panther builds, but is the case now. I believe it has to do with access to devices (i.e. iPod, CDs etc.) or something.
 
I have my iTunes set up with the entire library in /Users/Shared/Music, including the iTunes Music folder with the iTunes music library. And then I set my iTunes > Advanced settings as this : iTunes Music Folder Location - iMac:Users:Shared:Music ; And I checked both "Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized" and "Copy Files to iTunes Music Folder" or something like that. Now when I add a song to iTunes, the library file in /Users/Shared/Music/iTunes is changed, and the music is copied into the /Users/Shared/Music folder, so when my brother logs on and his iTunes settings are the same as mine he can see all the songs I can see; and when he add's a song I will be able to listen to it when I log in. One thing is that if he listens to a song, the play count on my library changes too.
It works great - my whole family shares music. I'm gonna give both my brother and sister gift certificates to iTMS for christmas, and then listen to their music ;^)
 
I too have both the ~/Music/iTunes linked to a common dir and the actual music library. To get around permissions problems I used netinfo to put all of the users on the machine in the same group.

My question is this: Fast User Switching "pauses" iTunes by default when switching users. Is there any way to change this behavior? In Quicktime player there is an option as to whether it should stop playing when switching users, so is there any way to emulate that option in iTunes?
 
The strange thing is that on my mothers old 500 mhz imac (without quartz extreme cube effect) it doesnt paus the music (just like in the early betas).
 
Speaking of the 3D Cube Effect, what is everyone's experience with it? Like how smooth does it run? I have a G4 800MHz iMac with 256MB RAM, how would it run? And how will it compare when I get my extra RAM, making for a total of 768MB RAM?
 
eMac 700 mhz 768 mb ram:
Runs pretty smooth, except for when the computer calculates something, then it pretty much skips the effect.
 
and the performance of QE is dependent on your openGL api, which is dependent on your graphiccard. Radeon 9000 mobility with 64mb here and it's smooth
 
i've just installed panther, and i don't know why, but the cude effect is just not happening at all. i've got a 32mb AGP nVidia card that is apparently supported.... but no animated action.

anybody got any ideas?
 
The cube effect will only work if you have a Quartz-Extreme capable chip and graphics card. I don't, so no cube for me when I get panther.
 
wicky said:
i've just installed panther, and i don't know why, but the cude effect is just not happening at all. i've got a 32mb AGP nVidia card that is apparently supported.... but no animated action.

anybody got any ideas?
Click to expand...

What screen res you running? I don't get the Cube effect on my system at work 'coz I run at 1600x1200 @ 85Hz. If I knock it down to 1280x1024 the effect returns. I also think having both accounts running different res will cause the effect to not happen…

Um, I don't know. That's all I've got.
 
That's what I would have said... if you're running a really high resolution and you don't have a whole lot of video RAM, you won't see the cube effect unless you make your pixels bigger.
 
I was at the local store to try and convince my mother to buy panther (she's convinced!) and I was toying with the dual 2ghz G5 and boy does that thing cook! Fast user switching and the cube effect is so neat :) I hope it does work on my system, anyone have and iMac like mine with panther?
 
yup, that was the problem; it doesn't like 1600 x 1200 but is ok with 1280 x 1024.... which is a shame.

thanks for the help
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top